This moment was horrible.  Mr. Espiau, to induce his comrades to make a last effort, tacked and made a motion to rejoin the raft.  The sailors endeavoured to oppose it, saying that the men on the raft would fall upon us, and cause us all to perish.  “I know it, my friends,” said he, “but I will not approach so near as to incur any danger; if the other vessels do not follow me, I will think only on your preservation, I cannot do impossibilities.”  In fact, seeing that he was not seconded, he resumed his route.  The other boats were already far off.  “We shall sink,” cried Mr. Espiau, let us shew courage to the very last.  Let us do what we can:  vive le roi!  This cry a thousand times repeated rises from the bosom of the waters which are to serve us for a grave.  The boats also repeated it, we were near enough to hear this cry of vive le roi!  Some of us thought that this enthusiasm was madness:  was it the fulness of despair which made them speak so, or was it the expression of the soul broken by misfortune?  I know not, but for my part, this moment appeared to me sublime:  this cry was a rallying cry, a cry of encouragement and resignation. (B)

[A10] XVI.—­On the sudden Gale experienced by the Raft.

This strong gale was the same North West wind which in this season, as has been said before, blows every day with great violence after sun-set; but which, that day, began sooner, and continued till 4 o’clock the next morning, when it was succeeded by a calm.  The two boats which resisted it, were several times on the point of being wrecked.  The whole time that this gale lasted, the sea was covered with a remarkable quantity of galeres or physalides, (physalis pelasgica) which arranged, for the most part, in straight lines, and in two or three files, cut at an angle the direction of the waves, and seemed at the same time to present their crest or sail to the wind, in an oblique manner, as if to be less exposed to its impulse.  It is probable that these animals have the faculty of sailing two or three abreast, and of ranging themselves in a regular or symetrical order; but had the wind surprised these, so arranged on the surface of the sea, and before they had time to sink, and shelter themselves at the bottom, or did the sea, agitated on these shores, to a greater depth than is supposed, make them fear, in this situation, to be thrown upon the coast?  However it be, the orders of their march; their disposition, in respect to the force which impelled them, and which they strove to resist; the apparent stiffness of the sail seemed equally admirable and surprising.  Mr. Rang, who has been mentioned with praise in this work, having had the curiosity to catch one of these singular animals, soon felt a tingling in his hand, and a burning heat, which made him feel much pain till the next day.  Bones of seche gigantesque (sepia, cuttle-fish) already whitened by the sun, passed rapidly along the side of the ship, and almost always with some insects, which having, imprudently ventured too far from the land, had taken refuge on these floating islands.  As soon as the sea grew calm, they perceived some large pelicans, gently rocking themselves on the bosom of the waves. (A)